We were in Stehekin for a quick weekend overnight and had a little time to hike in the evening. We were staying in the Tumwater campground and did a short loop up the Old Wagon Trail to the PCT and then south with a short jaunt up the McGregor Trail around Howard Lake for a stop about 2785ft up by a waterfall and a view point down at the lake with Bannock, Agnes, Moore and Skookum Puss Mountains for our dinner backdrop. Stunning.
This was my first time up McGregor and I'm still not entirely sure we were on the actual trail. We started out where the sign was off the PCT at 5:37pm and followed an obvious trail around the northwest corner of Howard Lake but the trail was not matching in anyway what I had on my map or GAIA. The switchbacks were much wider. Now, the trail is quite overgrown in places but where it wasn't we were clearly on a trail. And when we were standing where GAIA said there was a trail, there was clearly not one anywhere near us heading up or down perpendicular. At about 6:10 the trail we were on crossed an obvious recent avalanche path where the brush was hacked off at the ends and shortly we reached a switchback at Coon Creek (not sure they are going to rename this like the lake) with a lovely waterfall coming down over a cliff band. From here the trail went left and we wondered up a bit but then decided time wise we would head back down to the outcropping by the waterfall to make dinner. I imagine the switchback would have eventually began those tight switchbacks you can see on the map toward the summit.
We completed our loop on the PCT down to High Bridge and were back to camp about 8:45pm. Someday I'll make it all the way to the summit!
On a side note, we talked with a FS crew attempting a log out on the PCT south and they said they were turned back by snow 6 miles south of High Bridge. Also, the shuttle bus is now $8.
Link to more pics and GAIA below.
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